Category: Nonfiction November

Throughout the month of November, bloggers Liz, Frances, Heather,  Rebekah and Deb invite you to celebrate Nonfiction November with us.

Liz writes: ‘Meet your hosts! Liz (that’s me!), who blogs at Adventures in reading, running and working from home, is an editor, transcriber, reader, reviewer, writer and runner. She likes reading literary fiction and nonfiction, travel and biography. Frances blogs about the books she has read at Volatile Rune and is a published poet, reviewer, sometime storyteller and novelist. Heather of Based on a True Story lives in Ohio with her husband, surrounded by lots and lots of critters! Rebekah reviews social justice books on She Seeks Nonfiction. She is a Pittsburgh-based activist, graphic designer, and cat parent. Deb, who blogs at Readerbuzz, is a Texas librarian-for-life who swims, rides her bike, draws, writes, and loves to read nonfiction-that-reads-like-fiction, literary fiction, classics, and children’s picture books.’

I don’t think I’ll be taking part every week, but this week I am.

Week 1 – Your Year in Nonfiction: Celebrate your year of nonfiction. What books have you read? What were your favorites? Have you had a favorite topic? Is there a topic you want to read about more? What are you hoping to get out of participating in Nonfiction November?
(Hosted by Heather of Based on a True Story)

Nonfiction Read Since December 1, 2023, linked to my reviews, where they exist.

1. Just One Thing by Michael Mosley 5*
2. A Memoir of My Former Self by Hilary Mantel 5* – In addition to her celebrated career as a novelist, Hilary Mantel contributed for years to newspapers and journals, unspooling stories from her own life and illuminating the world as she found it. “Ink is a generative fluid,” she explains. “If you don’t mean your words to breed consequences, don’t write at all.” A Memoir of My Former Self collects the finest of this writing over four decades.
3. Shakespeare: The Man who Pays the Rent by Judi Dench, Brendan O’Hea 5*
4. Maiden Voyages by Sian Evans 5*
5. The Road to Wigan Pier by George Orwell 4*

1. Great Meadow by Dirk Bogarde 5* – Seen through the eyes of a 10-year old in the late 1930s, this novel recaptures an idyllic childhood, a time of love and gentleness with its sounds and scents intact, whilst the world beyond went to war. It was a great pleasure to read, taking me back to a time before I was born, to that time between the two World Wars, covering the years 1930 to 1934. Dirk (Derek) Bogarde was born in 1921 and his sister Elizabeth in 1924. Theirs was a somewhat privileged childhood, with a live-in Nanny, Lally, who also ran their household. Their father was the art editor of The Times and their mother was a former actress.
2. The Art of Laziness: Overcome Procrastination & Improve Your Productivity by Library Mindset 2* – There’s nothing new in this book for me, but it’s a good reminder about what I already knew.
3. Getting Better by Michael Rosen 5* Michael Rosen has grieved the loss of a child, lived with debilitating chronic illness, and faced death itself when seriously unwell in hospital with Covid. In spite of this he has survived, and has even learned to find joy in life in the aftermath of tragedy. In Getting Better, he shares his story and the lessons he has learned along the way. Exploring the roles that trauma and grief have played in his own life, Michael investigates the road to recovery, asking how we can find it within ourselves to live well again after – or even during – the darkest times of our lives. Moving and insightful, this is a wonderful book.
4. Gladys Aylward: My Missionary Life in China by Gladys Aylward 3* Gladys was convinced that she called to preach the Gospel in China and in 1930 went to Yangchen, in the mountainous province of Shansi, a little south of Peking (Beijing). She worked with a 73-year-old missionary, Jeannie Lawson in an inn where, in the evening, they would entertain their guests with stories from the Bible. Gladys also began taking children into her home, and soon she had an orphanage with about 100 children. Then in 1938 in the spring of 1938, Japanese planes bombed the city of Yangcheng, killing many and causing the survivors to flee into the mountains. Five days later, the Japanese Army occupied Yangchen. She and the children fled walking over the mountains to Sian. In 1957, Alan Burgess,The Small Woman, which I read in my teens. So when I saw this autobiography I was keen to read it.

My favourites are the six books I gave 5 stars to on Goodreads. I like to read books on a wide variety of topics, such as history, philosophy, religion, biography, and diaries and letters. And currently I’m reading Enemies and Neighbours: Arabs and Jews In Palestine and Israel, 1917-2017 by Ian Black, an immensely detailed book; and Islands of Abandonment: Life in the Post-Human Landscape by Cal Flyn, about abandoned places: ghost towns and exclusion zones, no man’s lands and fortress islands – and what happens when nature is allowed to reclaim its place.

By participating in Nonfiction November I’m hoping this will encourage me to read more nonfiction rather than picking up the next novel to read and I’m looking forward to seeing what others recommend.

Are you participating in Nonfiction November this year? Leave me a comment or a link to your post–I’d love to see what you’ve read this year.

Week 2 (11/6-11/10) Choosing Nonfiction: What are you looking for when you pick up a nonfiction book? Do you have a particular topic you’re attracted to? Do you have a particular writing style that works best? When you look at a nonfiction book, does the title or cover influence you? If so, share a title or cover which you find striking. (Frances at Volatile Rune)

I missed week two as I ran out of time. So these are just a few thoughts about choosing nonfiction.I like to read nonfiction to learn more about a topic that interests me. I’ve always loved anything historical and also autobiographies/biographies/memoirs. And these days I’ve become more interested in politics and world affairs, wanting to know more about the history leading up to the terrible times we’re living in. Other subjects I read are health/nutrition etc, nature, travel, painting and art history.

As for writing style, it has to be readable, narrative nonfiction really, written clearly without the use of jargon or with too much technical specialist knowledge needed. And book covers don’t really influence me that much – if I want to know about the subject anyway I’ll read the book.

However, here are two I do like:

Week 3 (11/13-11/17) Book Pairings: This week, pair up a nonfiction book with a fiction title. Maybe it’s a historical novel and the real history in a nonfiction version, or a memoir and a novel, or a fiction book you’ve read and you would like recommendations for background reading. You can be as creative as you like! (Liz)

Earlier this year I read The Dancing Bear by Frances Faviell and I’m pairing it with The New Mrs Clifton by Elizabeth Buchan, historical fiction I read a few years ago. Both books are about life for ordinary people in the aftermath of World War 2.

The Dancing Bear set mainly in Berlin, covers the years from Autumn 1946 to Autumn 1949, with an Epilogue dated Autumn 1953. Frances Faviell (1905-1959) was the pen name of Olivia Faviell Lucas, painter and author. After the war, in 1946, she went with her young son, John, to Berlin where Richard Parker, her second husband, had been posted as a senior civil servant in the post-war British Administration. Berlin had been divided into four sectors by the Allies – Britain, the United States, France and the Soviet Union – and Frances is horrified by the conditions she found. There were deaths from hunger and cold as the winter approached and queues for bread, milk, cigarettes, cinemas, buses and trams.

It was here that she befriended the Altmann family. They lived on the ground floor of a large ruined house – the upper storeys had disappeared and just the twisted iron girders remained, sticking up grotesquely against the sky. The ground floor looked very shaky and the windows were covered in cardboard and the door had been repaired from odd pieces of wood. It was freezing cold, and although they had a stove they had no fuel to light it and because electricity was rationed they had to use candles. There were two bedrooms, a small kitchen, a sitting room and a bathroom. With the help of her driver, Stampie, she does what she can to help them.

It’s a moving memoir and I was fascinated by it all – the people, their situations, and their morale and attitudes as well as the condition of Berlin in the aftermath of World War Two. The realities of living under occupation are clearly shown, as well as the will to survive despite all the devastation and deprivation.

The New Mrs Clifton by Elizabeth Buchan. This begins in 1974 with the discovery of a skeleton, the remains of a woman, between twenty-five and thirty, buried beneath a tree in the garden of a house in Clapham, facing the Common. Her identity and why and how she was killed is not revealed until very nearly the end of the book and all the time I was reading I was wondering who the killer was and which woman had been murdered.

It then moves back in time to 1945 when Intelligence Officer Gus Clifton returns to London with Krista, the German wife he married secretly in Berlin. Krista is clearly devastated by her experiences at the hands of the British and their allies – all but broken by horrors she cannot share. For his sisters, Julia and Tilly, this broken woman is nothing more than the enemy. For Nella, who was Gus’s loyal fiancée, it is a terrible betrayal. Elizabeth Buchan paints a convincing and moving picture of life in both London and Berlin post-war, highlighting the devastation of the bombing, rationing and queuing, showing how people have to come to terms with the changes in their lives in both countries.

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The main difference between these books is that The Dancing Bear is about real people, written soon after the end of the end of the war, whereas The New Mrs Clifton is about fictional characters set in the that historical period. I enjoyed and learned a lot from both of them.

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I’ve enjoyed comparing these books – which books would you choose to compare?

Week 1 (10/30-11/3) Your Year in Nonfiction: Celebrate your year of nonfiction. What books have you read? What were your favorites? Have you had a favorite topic? Is there a topic you want to read about more?  What are you hoping to get out of participating in Nonfiction November?

I love reading nonfiction but it takes me much longer to read than fiction because of the detail involved. It’s only been 13% of my total reading so far this year. These are the books I read:

The links are to my reviews, where they exist.

1. The Dancing Bear by Francis Faviell
2. Elizabeth Macarthur: A life at the edge of the world by Michelle Scott Tucker
3. The Road to Little Dribbling by Bill Bryson
4. The Hairy Bikers Blood, Sweat & Tyres: The Autobiography by Si King and Dave Myers
5. The Bone Chests by Cat Jarman
6. Ultra Processed People by Chris van Tulleken
7. Agatha Christie by Lucy Worsley – review to follow
8. Virginia Woolf vol 1 by Quentin Bell – review to follow

I enjoyed them all, but the outstanding book for me is Ultra Processed People by Chris van Tulleken, subtitled ‘Why Do We All Eat Stuff That Isn’t Food … And Why Can’t We Stop?’ I kept hearing about ultra processed food, but had little idea what exactly it is, so when I saw this book I thought it would be ideal – and it’s by Chris van Tulleken, who has impressed me on numerous TV programmes on nutrition. It is absolutely fascinating and a real eye opener!

By participating in Nonfiction November I’m hoping this will encourage me to read more nonfiction rather than picking up the next novel to read and I’m looking forward to seeing what others recommend.

I’ll be taking part in Nonfiction November this year, but maybe not every week. The hosts are:

• Heather – Based on a True Story   
• Frances – Volatile Rune
• Liz – Adventures in reading, running and working from home
• Rebekah – She Seeks Nonfiction
• Lisa – Hopewell’s Public Library of Life

Each Monday, our weekly host will post our topic prompt and include a linkup where you can link your posts, connect with other bloggers, and dive deeper by reading and sharing nonfiction book reviews.

Here are the topic prompts for each week:

Week 1 (10/30-11/3) Your Year in Nonfiction: Celebrate your year of nonfiction. What books have you read? What were your favorites? Have you had a favorite topic? Is there a topic you want to read about more?  What are you hoping to get out of participating in Nonfiction November? (Heather)

Week 2 (11/6-11/10) Choosing Nonfiction: What are you looking for when you pick up a nonfiction book? Do you have a particular topic you’re attracted to? Do you have a particular writing style that works best? When you look at a nonfiction book, does the title or cover influence you? If so, share a title or cover which you find striking. (Frances)

Week 3 (11/13-11/17) Book Pairings: This week, pair up a nonfiction book with a fiction title. Maybe it’s a historical novel and the real history in a nonfiction version, or a memoir and a novel, or a fiction book you’ve read and you would like recommendations for background reading. You can be as creative as you like! (Liz)

Week 4 (11/20-11/24) Worldview Shapers: One of the greatest things about reading nonfiction is learning all kinds of things about our world which you never would have known without it. There’s the intriguing, the beautiful, the appalling, and the profound. What nonfiction book or books have impacted the way you see the world in a powerful way? Is there one book that made you rethink everything? Do you think there is a book that should be required reading for everyone? (Rebekah)

Week 5 (11/27-12/1) New To My TBR:  It’s been a month full of amazing nonfiction books! Which ones have made it onto your TBR? Be sure to link back to the original blogger who posted about that book! (Lisa)